Page 82 of Captivated By the Bratva

“I don’t want to slow you down,” he argued as he strained to sit up more. “He’d never forgive me.”

“And I would never forgive myself. I don’t know much about you brothers and your Bratva, but I can tell that Maxim cares about you. He loves you. And it would destroy him to lose you. I can’t let that happen.”

29

MAXIM

Old, derelict buildings offered shelter the closer I came to the address that Tom had given me. Speeding through the traffic-less streets arranged in an organized maze of parallels and right angles, I had a clear route toward the biggest structure.

To my left, Lake Michigan’s waves pummeled the shore. With the window down, the smell of the water reached me. It wasn’t like the humid coast of Mexico, but it felt like déjà vu, rushing toward Nadia in an area that hugged a body of water.

“She'd better be here,” I growled to myself.

I didn’t doubt Tom. Somehow, I felt confident that he was right. The determination in his voice wasn’t fake. That agentreallywanted Lev Avilov caught and captured to be charged or killed.

My biggest worry was that Nadia might have already been moved.

I narrowed my eyes at the horizon on the choppy waves. Boats would be out there. They always were. But if Lev already moved her onto his, I’d need to haul my ass to catch one off the land.

I sped all the way into the compound. Two men shot at the SUV, but I spotted them in advance. One was run over, his gunfire cobwebbing the windshield. The SUV thumped harshly as I drove over his body, but his partner kept firing.

Hunching my shoulders, I tried to stay as low as possible but still drive in. I fired out the window, hitting him somewhere because he cried out with a curse and ceased firing.

Driving over the one guard resulted in bullets hitting something in the undercarriage, but I ignored the flashing lights that flickered on all over the dashboard. Fluids were leaking. Damage was inevitable, and I wondered if both the brake and power steering fluids were draining out from that one man’s gunfire because I stopped by crashing into the corner of a building.

I counted on more men to come running, but no one rushed up at the impact.

That’s not good.

This place should be secured. It had to be. If no one was rushing up to the sound of an SUV smashing into the corner of a low-lying storage shed, they were preoccupied elsewhere.

Near Nadia.

I dreaded the idea of her being inside here where all the men and soldiers might be busy. Busy fighting or abusing her. I wanted her away from danger, not surrounded by it.

Since I braced for the rough brake job, I wasn’t too wounded. The air bags were a pain to push back, and the door was too crumpled to open. A slice of my knife got through most of the air bag, and I climbed out of the window to rush inside the biggest building.

My knife was in its sheath. In my hand, I carried my gun, at the ready. All my muscles were thrumming with adrenaline. I was in a serious mood to kick some ass and kill more of these Avilov fuckers.

But it seemed I’d need to wait my turn. When I kicked a door open, I rushed inside to complete and utter chaos. No one would even notice that I’d come in. I was just one among the many fighting and trying to hide.

What the fuck are all these children doing here?

This close to the water, it made sense that they’d be involved in a trafficking operation here, with the ships coming in and going just as easily.

Aside from the children escaping and trying to get out of the warehouse, Avilov soldiers fought among themselves. Infighting was nothing new. But I couldn’t figure out who was targeting whom. And I couldn’t guess where Nadia might be.

I entered further, sticking to the walls and hiding around groups fighting.

It was chaos, pure and simple, especially with the fire alarms shrieking. No smoke hung in the air, and I wondered if someone had pulled the alarms to instigate this mayhem.

Aside from the children trying to escape, others were hurrying toward the exits. Men who’d been beaten. One was missing his hand, wrapping his stump with his shirt.

Hostages.

And I bet Dmitri is one of them!

“Get them. Get them back in the room!” one Avilov soldier shouted. “Get the hostages back in the room!”

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